Gallipoli, Kokoda and beyond: the story of Australia's greatest general
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Blamey
By Brent D. Taylor
Details: Non-Fiction, published 2025.
Format: Soft cover, 448 pages.
Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey was intelligent, influential, controversial and divisive. He inspired strong loyalty amongst his supporters, and deep animosities in his detractors.
Blamey was chief of staff to Lieutenant General Sir John Monash on the Western Front in 1918 and Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Police in the 1920s and 1930s. During the Second World War he was instrumental in shaping the Second Australian Imperial Force. As Commander‑in‑Chief of the Australian Military Forces, he oversaw the expansion and development of the army. He was the highest‑ranking Australian soldier of the war.
Deputy to successive British commanders‑in‑chief in the Middle East in 1941, he held a similar role in the Pacific from 1942 as Commander, Allied Land Forces for the American General Douglas MacArthur. In practice, however, Blamey’s influence or direction, beyond Australian troops, was limited.
Drawing on earlier biographies, including historian David Horner’s Blamey: The Commander-in-Chief (1998), Brent D. Talyor makes a sustained argument that Blamey could be considered Australia’s greatest general.
About the author
Dr Karl James
Dr Karl James is the Head of Military History at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
